Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

More Than This by Patrick Ness

14 reviews

zoejjj's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

BOOO it felt like the longest book o have ever listened too! Good things first: I listened to this as an audiobook read by Nick Podehl and he was wonderful. Great Job. The little polish boy who’s name I cannot spell (tomage?) iconic. I love him, he was the highlight of this book. 

Bad stuff: PLEASE PATRICK NESS EDIT YOUR BOOKS. The pacing and mystery was actually really good until we meet Tomage (?) and Rajean (again audiobook I do not know how to spell these names) and then the book begins to drag on for chapters and chapters of meaningless interactions. It’s like Patrick couldn’t decide what kind of book he wanted to write and decided to include a scene (or multiple chapters!!) that followed one plot line that eventually went nowhere. If he had answered a single!! question maybe I could forgive him but the ending is stupid.  The premise is promising but he ends it stupidly. Go watch the matrix, it’s essentially the same thing.

I wanted to give up when I had 45 minutes left and could barely slog through the ending. That should’ve been the most on the edge of your seat part of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Abandonment, Outing, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Violence, Physical abuse, Grief, Death of parent, Death, and Child death

peggy_racham's review

4.75

"It was suddenly as if, for the briefest of moments, the burden had been lifted, like there was no gravity at all, like he had finally set down the heavy load he’d been carrying.. "
Hard to write a review of such a character oriented book. No surprise that I loved this book. Patrick Ness has a way of pulling you into the story every time. All the snipets of the past were so good even when it broke my heart. Love it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Outing, Sexual assault, Suicide, Kidnapping, Blood, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Child death, Death, and Medical content

dani_2006's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Murder, Bullying, Death, Kidnapping, Homophobia, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Vomit

ingridmaria's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Seth dies in the US and then wakes up in a dystopian England. And the story is about that, but it's also about being who you are, choosing to live, choosing to love and the people we choose to be with. I always wish this had a sequel because I want to know what happens in the world and to the characters I grew to love, but I know enough to believe they'll be OK.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Grief, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Suicide attempt, Bullying, Suicide, Child death, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Sexual content

katrinarose's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Such a unique and interesting book! I love the blend of sci fi, contemporary, and existentialism. There were a lot of points where we don’t know what is going on, but neither does Seth, so it really feels like we’re figuring everything out (or not) with him. The character development was great too. Although the ending was satisfying for me, I could see why people would want more, and I do wish there were a bit more answers for some things (but that was also kind of the point). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Outing, Child death, Death, Murder, Stalking, and Suicide

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Medical content, and Medical trauma

bunny_bee_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Suicide, Homophobia, Bullying, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Death, Child death, and Blood

talonsontypewriters's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Suicide, Child abuse, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Vomit, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Outing, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Grief, Fatphobia, Car accident, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, and Homophobia

Minor: Infidelity, Racism, Bullying, Xenophobia, Sexism, Sexual content, Misogyny, Ableism, and Excrement

Graphic drowning and unreality. Attack by animal. Smoking, underage drinking. Joke about teacher/student relationship, description of character as "concentration camp guard."

vthecreature's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

This started out slow but great. The mystery, the tension, the surprise when

it suddenly turned out that there were other people in the world

. As an enjoyer of mystery and soft sci-fi I was a bit disappointed when certain truths were revealed. However after seeing another reviewer’s statement that this book is almost a decade old, I kinda forgave it for that.
I didn’t see some of the smaller plot twists coming such as

Gudmund sleeping with Monica or Seth choosing to give Owen to the escaped convict (that made me GASP)

but unfortunately I quickly predicted one of the biggest plot twists (

Owen being dead the whole time. There was just too much foreshadowing.

) 
The characters weren’t super complex,

the ending lacked resolution to MANY questions, but in a frustrating way rather than a mysterious one

, and there was a bit too much explicit explanation for what and why the characters were feeling. In conclusion, this was pretty good, great by 2013 standards, just not my cup of tea at the moment. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Physical abuse, Outing, Suicide, and Blood

Moderate: Confinement, Homophobia, Body horror, and Child death

Minor: Racism, Body shaming, Sexual content, and Bullying

Kidnapping

thegr1mreader's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Body shaming, Child death, Child abuse, Death, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Outing, and Bullying

Minor: Religious bigotry, Vomit, Addiction, and Alcoholism

rayne_1906's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

3 hours - I read this book for the first time years ago, and I absolutely loved it. And now, rereading it, I still loved it. I love the premise, I love the metaphors, I love the characters. I believe this was the book that got me into reading Ness' works actually. My only issue is the ending feels a little too abrupt compared to the rest of the book. I would have loved just one extra scene or chapter, even just repeating the opening scene again, although I understand that the open-ending is there for a purpose. I love that this book doesn't tell you what is real and what is not, what is metaphor and what is happening, I just love this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, and Suicide

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Murder

Minor: Alcohol, Fatphobia, Sexism, and Vomit

Drowning